Library closures not ruled out without help of voluntary organisations
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THE county council’s cabinet member for customer services has said library closures could be considered again in 2013 if funding costs were not “diversified” among other public and voluntary organisations.
Councillor Heather Smith (Con, Prebendal), said the local authority “cannot afford” to continue funding the library service on its own and needed to reduce costs by up to 50 per cent over the next four years.
During the past few months, the council has spoken to key groups and organisations already involved with libraries to get their feedback about how the service can be developed to ensure it can continue.
Organisations which could help reduce the cost of the service to the county council include Friends of the Library groups, district and borough councils and parish and town councils.
Councillor Smith said she now wanted everyone to get involved in a new consultation to decide the future of the library service.
Councillor Smith said: “This review sets out a plan where instead of closing libraries or reducing opening hours, we diversify the way libraries are funded.
“We intend to review how we are doing in summer 2013 as a mid-point, but if progress is not on track we will have to consider closures once again.”
However, Barry Care, chairman of Moulton Parish Council, who fought the proposed closure of his local village library earlier in the year, said he thought the county council had “a duty” to fully fund the library service. He said: “We have 8,500 students at the college, 1,500 at the secondary school and 400 at the primary school so I think we should be able to expect a library service.”
Public meetings about the review will take place at the Central Library in Abington Street, Northampton, on Saturday, September 10; at Weston Favell Library on Saturday, September 17, both from 10am until 2pm; and at Daventry Library on Saturday, September 24 from 2pm until 4pm.
A video booth will be available for anyone who wants to record their views.
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willi eckaslyke
Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 01:37 PMIf libraries are an attempt to educate the working classes, perhaps we had better hang on to them....Of course, the 30's working classes were better able to read than now. These days, the TV soaps at least TRY to do a similar job.
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Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 12:14 PMWith the internet, libraries are a thing of the past. They were started up mainly in the 1930's in an attempt to educate the working classes. You can get books for pennies in charity shops. There will have to be a new Act of Parliament to close them all down though.
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